It’s a pretty impressive speed-dial list on Kelly Brown’s phone when he needs to talk captaincy.
There’s the legendary Jim Telfer, like Brown a Melrose man and someone he’s looked up to for his whole life.
There’s PC Brown, the great Scottish skipper of the 1970s.
There’s Steve Borthwick, former England and Saracens captain, and Jason “Mighty” White, Brown’s first captain for Scotland, and seemingly a touchstone for every Scotland captain of the last decade.
But after nearly two years, the Scotland skipper is beginning to feel more at home in the role as he starts his second RBS 6 Nations in the job in Dublin on Sunday.
“Last year before the championship started I made a lot of phone calls and spoke to a lot of people,” he said.
“I had Steve and John Smit, a World Cup-winning captain to tap into at Sarries, but I just wanted to know how they all thought and what they experienced.
“It was pretty intense with Jim. It took me back to being a schoolboy, just sitting there while he was talking to me. Obviously he’s a Melrose man, he’s someone I’ve looked up to all of my life, and I massively respect what he’s got to say.”
White was the last man to lead Scotland to three wins in the championship, and Kelly was on the phone to his former team-mate on Tuesday just to catch up.
“The best bit of advice is, you’ve got to lead as yourself and got to do your playing role well,” he continued.
“Players want to follow a leader who is playing well and doing the dirty work, who is not asking them to do things that he wouldn’t do himself. That’s the foundation, the rest is all the layers on top of that.”
Aiming to improve on last year’s third place in the championship, Brown realises that it won’t be easy with a tough schedule of three away games.
“I think it’s very exciting. Finishing third last year was great as it was our best finish in quite a number of years,” he said.
“But it’s about making sure that we not only keep on improving, but are slightly more consistent.
“What’s exciting over the past year is the number of guys that have not only got a chance, but have taken it.
“We’ve got a lot more strength in depth now, which is only a good thing for Scottish rugby.”
To win in Dublin has proved tough for Scotland the last opening round win away from Murrayfield in the championship was at the site of the Aviva Stadium, then Lansdowne Road, as far back as 1996.
Brown played a significant role in the last win in Dublin at Croke Park in 2010 despite his nose being broken. That game shows we can win in Ireland, but all of those games are in the past and don’t affect anything any more.
“It’s about us making sure we focus on ourselves and on our roles, and go over there and work hard and we’re physical. And if we do that I’m sure we can put the Irish under pressure.”
After their near-miss against New Zealand in the last match at the Aviva, Ireland are going to be coming in on a wave of fervour, thinks Brown.
“I expect Ireland to come absolutely firing out in the first 20 minutes, so we need to match that fire at the start,” he said.
“And I expect the crowd will be unbelievably passionate, but in saying that it really just boils down to 15 versus 15 in the end.”